Bush was practically re-elected on a promise to keep boys from kissing.
Practically alone among elected officials in the United States, Mr. Bloomberg spoke in 2010 for the right of a Muslim group to open a mosque a few blocks from the site of the World Trade Center attacks, citing the founding principles of the nation.
This is the legacy of Proposition 71, the 2004 ballot initiative that created the agency and made it immune from accountability to the state legislature--or practically speaking, any elected officials.
So many people were surprised when he left office, but just a few years later, Paxon was one of the top lobbyists in the country, another one-time elected official practically running Congress from the outside.
In the last 10 years, the number of states where voters have put budgetary strictures on their elected officials has practically doubled, to 13.
Now elected officials are practically trampling over children to engage with spectators, joked Tom Moulton, Mr. Fay's husband, who for the past week has been baking cakes and cookies for preparade events.
So, for instance, very large wealth differentials may make it practically impossible for poor people to be elected to political office or to have their political views represented.
While the prayer breakfast, held in the Gracie Mansion ballroom, drew few elected officials, the forum sponsored by Mr. Sharpton was practically overflowing with them.
So when some county officials threatened last week to see some lawmakers defeated this year at the polls, it was an attack on a way of life that legislators have almost come to see as a perk of the job -- an entitlement, practically, to be re-elected until the political will or ability to breathe runs out, whichever comes first.
He was elected by the people, Serbia has a multi-party system and practically no political prisoners.
